RFP 75N93020R00002 - iDPCC - Solicitation Questions and Responses.pdf

CEIRR Influenza Data Processing and Communication Center RFP 75N93020R00002 Questions and Responses

Issued By NIAID March 18, 2020

Number Oferror Question Government Response

Attachment 1, Section II.A, "Formatting for Proposals" (Page 2 of 2); please confirm that it will be acceptable to use 9‐point font in tables and 8‐point font in graphics.

9 and 8‐point fonts are permissable for tables and graphics respectively.

Attachment 1, Section B, "Page Limitations" (Page 2 of 2); please confirm that the 50 page limitation does not include the page count for the length limited Key Personnel CVs.

The 50‐page limitation does not include Key Personnel CVs/Resumes.

RFP, Section 2.1.2.II, "Technical Proposal" (Page 52); please confirm that, if included, an acronym table and a compliance matrix would be excluded from the page count limit.

The acronym table is excluded from the 50‐page Technical Proposal page limit.

RFP, Section J, "List of Attachments" (Page 43); please confirm that the three (3) Attachments: (1) Attachment 10 Technical Proposal Summary (1 pg), (2) Attachment 11 Summary of Related Activities (1 pg per Key Personnel), and (3) Attachment 12 HHS Section 508 Product Assessment Template (15 pgs) are excluded from the 50 page Technical Proposal Page Limit.

The 3 attachments referenced are excluded from the 50‐page Technical Proposal page limit.

1. RFP, Section 2.1.2.II, "Technical Proposal" (Page 52); please confirm that the cover/transmittal letter is excluded from page count.

The cover/transmittal letter is excluded from the 50‐page Technical Proposal page limit.

RFP, Section L.2.a.2, "Instructions to Offerors, General Instructions, Authorized Official and Submission of Proposal" (Page 52); please confirm that hard copies and CD/DVD copies of the proposal are neither requested nor required.

Hard‐copies and CD/DVD copies of the proposal are neither requested nor required.

1. RFP, Section L.2.c.9, "Instructions to Offerors, Business Proposal Instructions, Subcontractors" (Page 81); please confirm that the following process is acceptable for subcontractor sealed bids:

Step 1: Prime offeror submits all proposal files on behalf of the team, including password‐ protected subcontractor sealed bid, in eCPS.

Step 2: Subcontractor sends the Contracting Officer an email with the password to open the file prior to the submission deadline.

Would the government consider giving a 2‐week extension? An extension is not being granted at this time.

Is there a requirement to send clinical influenza data that is generated, to IMMPORT? Relevant CEIRR data may be sent to IMMPORT. See Attachment 3, SOW, Section 2.e.

Will instructional and training modules also be accessed by the external research community or only researchers part of the iDPCC network?

Training modules will be accessed by CEIRR contractors and subcontractors.

How many active users are being supported? Active users will be determined by the CEIRR contract award. Current users are approximately 300‐400.

The process outlined is acceptable.

Issued By NIAID March 18, 2020

Number Oferror Question Government Response

Are there any terminology and/or metadata services or databases integrated for processing? Current DCPP data standards are available at http://www.niaidceirs.org/resources/data‐standards/

Is there a scheduled deliverable or timeline to the events when the data sets must be released to the NIAID and NCBI databases?

Refer to NIAID Data Release guidelines. See Attachment 8, Advance Understandings.

Are there any current pain points in the data management practices in developing metadata standards or interoperability or data sharing?

NIAID is not at liberty to provide this information.

What tools and/or platforms used for analysis and visualization? Offerors should propose appropriate analysis/visualization tools relevant to influenza surveillance and sequencing.

What level of visualization and analytics are currently being used? NIAID is not at liberty to provide this information.

Are the current quality assurance methods automated or manual? Current QA is both automated and manual to ensure submissions match the relevant data standards.

If automated what tools, technologies and/or platforms are implemented? NIAID is not at liberty to provide this information.

19 Approximately how many network boundaries are part of the network architecture? NIAID is not at liberty to provide this information.

20 Approximately how many system boundaries are part of the data architecture? NIAID is not at liberty to provide this information.

21 Are there any challenges or pain points with data and network boundaries? NIAID is not at liberty to provide this information.

How would you rate the current documentation of systems, applications and infrastructure on the scale of 1 through 5 (5 = Highly acceptable)?

NIAID is not at liberty to provide this information.

What percentage of the data is sent manually from the coordinating center to IMMPORT and GenBank?

All sequence data is submitted to GenBank.

24 What types of data and formats can be found in the iDPCC? Refer to Attachment 3, SOW Section 2c.

What tools does the iDPCC utilize for Data Collection and Data Analysis and what type of data analysis services does iDPCC provide?

Refer to Attachment 3, SOW Section 2b.

26 How do the Centers currently coordinate with iDPCC to transfer data? Data templates facilitate the transfer of data.

27 How much of iDPCC data is stored on‐prem vs cloud? NIAID is not at liberty to provide this information.

28 What is the breakdown of data in iDPCC by data type and format? NIAID is not at liberty to provide this information.

29 What is the current technology stack of the iDPCC environment? NIAID is not at liberty to provide this information.

Where are these websites/databases currently hosted? Websites and databases are currently housed at www.niaidceirs.org.

Does the contractor need to consider any hardware/software infrastructure costs to operate and maintain the system?

Offerors should consider costs needed to maintain and operate the system and perform the work proposed.

Is the submission of only the prime contractors Annual Financial Report sufficient? Only the prime offerror is required to submit an Annual Financial Report. It is the prime offerror's responsibility to assess the financial stability of its subcontractors.

Issued By NIAID March 18, 2020

Number Oferror Question Government Response

How many and what are the storage mechanism currently deployed by the outgoing iDPCC contractor?

NIAID is not at liberty to provide this information.

Are there any current pain points to the storage related to access, security, versioning, availability and/or data processing?

NIAID is not at liberty to provide this information.

What mechanisms are placed to track, audit and control the outgoing data from the centrally located cloud databases?

QA/QC mechanisms should ensure compliance with data standards and genome annotation.

Does the current iDPCC provide clearing house services for the CEIRR network? Materials are provided to centers in electronic formats and also distributed as hard copies if necessary for further distribution.

Can you provide examples of outreach materials the iDPCC would expect? Examples include flyers, posters, and cards promoting resources and reagents available to the research community.

Does the iDPCC expect the contractor to provide creative design services to produce the outreach materials?

Offerors should include sufficient design services to create outreach materials.

39 Confirm a cloud‐based solution is acceptable to meet requirements a, b, e, and f. Cloud based solutions are acceptable.

What volume of data does the current data center require for this task? Do you have a projection for growth over the life of the contract?

Current CEIRS centers have generated over 800,000 surveillance samples over the past 6 years.

41 Does the government require archive or backup? Offerors should provide for the secure back up of all data.

Does the outgoing contractor’s transition plan include transferring the current DPCC infrastructure (architecture, system, etc.) to the awardee?

The initial transition plan will include the transfer of all websites, data, databases, and templates.

Is it acceptable to the government that the transition would include transferring the current hosting environment to the awardee?

Please see response to question 42, above.

In order to appropriately plan for successful transition, can the government provide documentation for the current data center: architecture design, data design, etc.?

NIAID is not at liberty to provide this information.

Please clarify: Will the ad hoc peer reviewers selected by the Office of Acquisitions to evaluate the proposals include participants in the CEIRS sites as well as Government staff?

The government is not at liberty to discuss the specific peer reviewers or their affiliations at this time.

The Initial Transition required in section 3.1, page 2 of Attachment 3 is not addressed in Attachment 6. Please clarify: Where in the proposal response would the government like us to address the initial transition?

The initial transition should be addressed in Section 3, "Technical Plan /Approach", of the Technical Proposal.

To allow an assessment of what has been currently provided to the community and what is still needed, can the government share, what are the current data analysis and visualization tools implemented in the current DPCC?

NIAID is not at liberty to provide this information.

48 Is the Center Coordinator Key Personnel? The Center Coordinator is designated as Key Personnel.

How many unique users access the CEIRR Network sites? What volume of technical assistance requests do the sites receive per day/week/month?

Current users are approximately 300‐400 individuals. Generally there are around 100 service requests per year.